when headphones are connected to either the yeti or the pc the sound is reasonably good, in the short term that will be enough. The monitor speakers are so poor I may as well have sourced one without built in speakers, I have contacted the supplier to ask what they think. In the new year I will be looking seriously at speakers and audio interface once I've digested the information kindly posted on this thread.
thanks everyone and very best wishes for Christmas and New Year.
Trev

If you are set to record yourself on a PC and that's what you want to do, than that is what you do.

One would have to invest quite serious money over their price to obtain any really significant improvement in recording quality.

But just for reviewing one's own playing halfways good sounding computer loudspeaker or headphone might be enough. It really depends on what your final aim is.

I agree. The "serious money" has been cut off drastically over the last 2-3 decades, and Blue Yeti USB mic is on the decent side of the spectrum today.
I also read between the lines, that is fairly interpreted as you prioritize the convenience or handiness of the recording task to some extent.

Maybe it's a moot point for the OP but for the record and other readers:

@Tonit: You quite misrepresent what I have actually written. It's really not necessary to read between the lines because I was quite explicit saying that if the aim is just to monitor one's own playing I would strongly advise to use something as simple as possible, and mobile recorder are in any respect simpler to use than anything you can set up with any type of PC.

You just need much less Tech-Brain-mode and can better concentrate on your playing - that's the idea behind it.

"Quite serious money" wasn't at all related to Blue Yeti USB mic, which might be good or not, it's already in the other direction - using computer.

"Quite serious money" meant what would be needed to get a significant step upward from a decent mobile recorder and wether it makes sense or not depends, as I wrote, entirely on what you want to achieve in the end.

I think one can easily predict that spending more money for different component exchanges will not going to bring the OP to any really significantly better quality of recording sound - because as the name says Blue Yeti USB has already a digital output, and no interface in this world will improve what comes ut digitally from the Blue Yeti, though maybe there will be a better playback quality. If the recording sound itself isn't good, than some other settings might be wrong, but that's software, not hardware.

As to microphones, there are fantastic sounding small diaphragm condensers and quite bad sounding 1-inch large diaphragm condensers, so the size of the diaphragm is far from determining what will come out of a recording. And with a good microphone there immediately comes the need for good preamps, and that's where you end up spending sizable bucks.

Music is a big continent with different landscapes and corners. Some of them I do visit frequently, some from time to time and some I know from hearsay only ...

If you are set to record yourself on a PC and that's what you want to do, than that is what you do.

One would have to invest quite serious money over their price to obtain any really significant improvement in recording quality.

But just for reviewing one's own playing halfways good sounding computer loudspeaker or headphone might be enough. It really depends on what your final aim is.

I agree. The "serious money" has been cut off drastically over the last 2-3 decades, and Blue Yeti USB mic is on the decent side of the spectrum today.
I also read between the lines, that is fairly interpreted as you prioritize the convenience or handiness of the recording task to some extent.

@Tonit: You quite misrepresent what I have actually written. It's really not necessary to read between the lines because I was quite explicit saying that if the aim is just to monitor one's own playing I would strongly advise to use something as simple as possible, and mobile recorder are in any respect simpler to use than anything you can set up with any type of PC.

Ooops sorry for confusion but I did not read your (rojarosguitar's) "between the lines". I thought you (rojarosguitar) are also reading OP's (Trev's) between the lines as I was.

The "serious money" does NOT pertain to Yeti at all, as I clearly set forth that is "on the DECENT side of the spectrum".

Probably I should have nailed it by saying "on the DECENT side of the spectrum, and is ONLY the DECENT side thereof" to save you from picking up from it.

No problem with me, I just wanted to make myself as clear as possible. Actually the aim of the OP is not clear at all, you are right... Having a good recording sound and having a good playback sound are totally different issues, but somehow they got mixed up in the OP.

As to the recording side I stand by what I have written. For playback side I'd suggest a half-ways decent set of headphones can be had for little money and are probably the quickest solution.

Music is a big continent with different landscapes and corners. Some of them I do visit frequently, some from time to time and some I know from hearsay only ...

As to the recording side I stand by what I have written. For playback side I'd suggest a half-ways decent set of headphones can be had for little money and are probably the quickest solution.

Right. A decent pair of headphones is the best cost-effective solution, except that we might still need a speaker pair to check the low frequency. So I strongly suggest (1) to get a decent pair of headphones, AND (2) a good pair of non-commercial grade (domestic use) speakers that is 2.0 channel (meaning, no separate bass booster box or multiple surround speakers), preferably a non in-line two-way speaker set that is within your budget range with the headphones. In-line or non in-line is arguable, it is up to you which one you choose, or in case of in-line, I would use it sideways.

When it comes to the speaker playback, the most important thing is to play-back with at least two different sets of speakers, whether integrated PC speakers, Bluetooth speakers, your smart device or otherwise, to check how the resultant mix will be played back. Disable any EQ/phase function such as "Bass booster" or "Arena" effect or whatsoever, and play back your mix on the speakers (or devices) to see how the resultant mix sounds like. Go back to the mix and adjust or re-record with different mic positions, or in different room and other adjustments. Casually play it back for about 1 week, and adjust anything you might notice before uploading.

Write down all the final parameters so that next time you can skip all those microphone setup/room/post editing adjustments you did over the week. Nonetheless it is preferable to go over all the procedures for further improvements as required.

For this purpose, you might want to upload your mix to YouTube, DailyMotion, SoundCloud or ReverbNation or any other online streaming service with less audio compression.

In this regard, avoid Facebook that continues to provide one of the the worst L/R crosstalk and compression.